(Yicai) May 8 -- TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the United States federal government over a law that is forcing the sale or divesting of the short-video platform.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is unconstitutional as it violates the First Amendment by banning an app used by 170 million US citizens to share their opinions and communicate, according to a lawsuit TikTok and ByteDance filed to the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia yesterday.

US President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act into law on April 24. The legislation, passed by the US House of Representatives in March, enables Biden to designate certain social media apps controlled by foreign adversaries as national security risks.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act specifically mentions TikTok, requiring Beijing-based ByteDance to sell the platform within nine months or face a ban. Biden has the right to extend the time limit by 90 days if progress is being made in the sale.

The decision to shut down the platform is based on speculations about data security and content manipulation, as well as analytical flaws, TikTok and ByteDance claimed in the lawsuit. The Congress, for the first time in history, has enacted a law that permanently prohibits a specific speech platform nationwide, they said.

TikTok and ByteDance requested the court declare the law unconstitutional, issue an order to prevent Attorney General Merrick Garland from enforcing the law, and provide appropriate further relief.

TikTok had no other choice, as the conditions for qualified divestment required by the bill are not feasible in terms of business, technology, and law, the pair noted in the lawsuit. The ban not only deprives the company of its right to equal protection but also results in the unlawful confiscation of its private property, they added.

This is not the first time TikTok has sued the US government. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump issued a ban targeting TikTok. As a result, the social media platform, its employees, and its creators filed separate lawsuits against the US government. They succeeded in obtaining a court order to halt the ban.

Editor: Futura Costaglione